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It’s been a while since I picked up the camera. Looking back at some of the images that make me ask myself why I’m not making the effort. I’m having trouble remembering creativity is worth taking time for.

Join me for a fun look back at a photo challenge I took to photograph the senses!

It’s Creativity Month! Who knew?!? Great time to kick off the all-new Found blog!!

If you followed Found for the photos or writing fun stuff, you’ll want to hang around for much more! If you’re a Christian struggling with mental illness, yours or a loved one’s, check out and follow my new blog, Fruit of Brokenness!

The world looks different in a frame

I wonder for how many people who suffer from depression and anxiety disorders, photography helps alleviate symptoms, at least for a little while. Judging by the Broken Light Collective site, there are many of us.

So, a couple of years ago we made this really cool-looking water color paint with, as you can see from the photos, corn syrup, vinegar, corn starch, baking soda, and food coloring. It worked pretty well, but I’d love to hear other recipes!

Hold it between your teeth, sideways, kind of like a horse’s bit, while you work at your desk, surf the internet, etc.

You may find that your mood improves a little.

Did you notice that the muscles that were activated when you held your mouth the way the pen or pencil demanded are mostly muscles that you use to smile?

I remember this experiment from my psych courses. Our emotions and their visible signs aren’t necessarily one-directional. We know we smile when we feel happy. But did you realize the act of smiling, even if we just trick our brain by activating the muscles for a while, can also make us feel happier? Or at least, as in the study, find comics funnier after we’ve sat like that for a while.

We’ve primed our brain to feel the emotion that goes with the physical sensation it’s experiencing.

If you’re already feeling down, you may not want to try the opposite way of holding your writing implement, with the end between your lips. The weight pulls your lips and face down in the way a frown does. You can guess the result found in the experiment. The “frowners” weren’t so easily amused as their counterparts. They didn’t enjoy themselves as much. It would seem they couldn’t. Because their brain was primed to feel the emotions that went with the muscles that were working.

The brain is an amazing, confusing, intricate thing… and the mind!! Wow.